John Updike - Endpoint and Other Poems

It seems unlikely that another writer would have been able to summon the fortitude to compose a eulogy worthy of the great John Updike, but he unwittingly did the job himself. This collection of poems was written during the last seven years of Updike's life, and includes several entries composed when he was literally on his deathbed. Updike brilliantly examined the theme of mortality throughout his career, most prominently in his seminal series of Rabbit novels (which end with RABBIT AT REST), so it is appropriate that his final work (to be accompanied by a posthumous collection of short stories, MY FATHER'S TEARS) would dwell almost entirely on that subject. After a lifetime of writing literature that contemplates the mystery of death, Updike still has plenty of questions. But his ponderings are so profound that they serve as answers for the rest of us.